Week of 16 July 2001:
Grand Changes
Because of construction work on the Manhattan Bridge, the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority on Sunday will make the biggest changes in subway
service in more than a decade, affecting some 600,000 subway riders. Included
in their plans is a cut-off of service from the B, D and Q lines between
Brooklyn and the Grand Street station in Chinatown, a move that community
residents feared would isolate the station and render it close to useless.
But local neighborhood groups formed the Grand Coalition to save the station.
Yesterday Governor George Pataki and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver jointly
announced a series of actions (such as a shuttle train between Grand and West
Fourth, and shuttle buses to Brooklyn and Canal Street), to keep the Grand
Street station active. The concessions would cost the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority about two million dollars a year.
Another Subway Struggle
Meanwhile, another coalition, the Coalition for Safer Transportation, is
collecting signatures to stop the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's
plan to close 100 of the city's 740 token booths this summer and replace them
with MetroCard machines.
Health Care Behind Bars
The city continues to have problems providing medical
care for its prison population. Yesterday, the Health
and Hospitals Corporation fined Prison Health Services
$100,000 for failing to provide adequate service to
inmates in more than two dozen areas, from H.I.V.
testing to infection control. The Tennessee company
had been awarded the $314 million contract to care for
13,500 inmates at 12 city jails in September following
disputes between the city and the previous health care
provider. City officials told
the Times
they found no instances of catastrophic neglect by
Prison Health Services and expressed optimism that the
company1s performance would improve.
Accidental Tragedy
The Queens fire that killed three New York City firefighters on Father's Day
was ruled an accident yesterday by law enforcement and Fire Department
officials. The two teenagers, who knocked over an open container of gasoline
that was ignited by a basement pilot light, will not face criminal charges.
The fire killed firefighters Harry Ford, Brian Fahey, and John Downing, and
critically injured Joseph Vosilla.
More Pedestrian Friendly
The city will widen sidewalks in the Times Square area by three to eight
feet and remove several feet of traffic lanes. Mayor Giuliani will announce
the plan in the next few days, but it is already underway according to the
Daily News.
Confession
Yesterday, a priest, Joseph Towle, testified in court that a parishioner,
Jesus Fornes, confessed to him in 1989 that he had killed a man. Fornes
died four years ago. The Rev. Towle was testifying because two other men
were convicted of the crime, and have been in jail for the past 12 years. An
assistant district attorney argued that the priest's revelation of the
confession was inadmissible as a matter of law and impermissible under
church teaching.
Bilingual Plan Imperiled
"The Board of Education unanimously voted for a new bilingual policy
conditioned on receiving $75 million to implement it," Schools Chancellor
Harold Levy said yesterday, "but so far we have received none of it."
Harassment
The federal government is suing the Giuliani administration for doing too
little to protect women in workfare jobs from harassment, according to
the
Times.
Transportation Delays
Three years after Congress handed over some $215 million for transportation
projects in the city, some $70 million remains unspent, as about half the
projects are the victims of bureaucratic disagreements and delays, according
to Newsday.
Arrest
Sean Salley, the suspect in the killing two months ago of three people in an
apartment above the Carnegie Hall Deli, was arrested in a Miami homeless
shelter after tips from two people watching the TV show "America's Most
Wanted."
Last week's stories...
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